Over $150b wiped off this week as cryptocurrencies tumble

Cryptocurrencies plunged on Friday, with bitcoin at one point sliding below $8,000 and headed for its biggest weekly loss since December 2013, as worries about a regulatory clampdown globally sent investors scrambling to sell.
This week’s slump brought the total market value of cryptocurrencies down to around $400 billion, half the high it reached in January, according to industry tracker Coinmarketcap.com. When compared with the value of January 28, 2018 when it was around $578 billion, the plunge was over $150 billion. The market value of cryptocurrencies is calculated by multiplying the number of digital coins in existence by their price, although many question whether that is the right way to value them.Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, fell as much as 15% on Friday to a two-month low of $7,625 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange BTC=BSP. It clawed back some losses and was down around 4.1% at $8,623.50 in mid-morning New York trading.